Seeing Tom Ryan Cartage driver Saiyaz Khan at work is like watching someone playing a Tetris video game….on a giant scale. Or skilfully taking part in a super-sizeme variant of Jenga maybe.

Because Saiyaz is as much a crane operator as he is a truck driver. Maybe even more so.

You only have to see him here, in Placemakers’ yard in Wiri, as he operates the Palfinger PK65002-SH crane on his Isuzu CYJ530 8x4 tractor unit – loading two job lots of house trusses and frames – to understand that.

Watching him deal with a bewildering pile of prefabricated building parts – a tricky mix of triangles, oblongs and squares, each of which needs to be positioned perfectly so as not to overhang, bow or shift on its coming journey – is both complex and, just quietly, pretty damn impressive.  

Isuzu has spent 21 consecutive years as the No. 1 truck brand in New Zealand. Let that sink in for a moment… 21 years! I was only 13 years old when it first got the top spot – and it hasn’t relinquished it since. 

So what is it that has helped Isuzu be so dominant? It isn’t the most high-tech truck on the market, it’s not the most powerful truck…and it hasn’t even had a new model for a number of years. And, unlike fellow Japanese brands FUSO and UD, it hasn’t had the European influence that they’ve had.

So I catch up with Tom Ryan Cartage’s Isuzu CYJ 530 8x4 tractor unit – with a massive Palfinger PK 65002 SH crane on its back – to see what’s going on.

Once its regular driver Saiyaz (Sunny) Khan has expertly loaded the quad semi-trailer with all sorts of different shapes and sizes of frames and trusses – like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle – I climb up into the cab to see if I can get some idea of what makes Isuzu so popular.

Entry is easy, with three steps that start low to the ground – the climb aided by two good grabhandles on each side.